A huge algae bloom off the coast of northern Oregon is reportedly killing thousands of seabirds. This is similar to another bloom that happened off Monterey Bay in 2007.

A slimy foam churning up from the ocean has killed thousands seabirds and washed many others ashore, stripped of their waterproofing and struggling for life. The birds have been clobbered by an unusual algae bloom stretching from the northern Oregon coast to the tip of the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state. "This is huge," said Julia Parrish, a marine biologist and professor at Washington State University who leads a seabird monitoring group. "It's the largest mortality event of its kind on the West Coast that we know of."

While some might seek solace in the fact that this is happening off Oregon and Washington, that's not really the way these things work. Their seabirds are, to an extent, our birds.